Page 108 - Courting the Media Contemporary Perspectives on Media and Law

In: Courting the Media: Contemporary … ISBN: 978-1-61668-784-7
Editors: Geoffrey Sykes © 2010 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Chapter 6

“YOUR WORDS AGAINST MINE”: STATES OF
EXCEPTION IN POPULAR LEGAL CULTURE

Per-Anders Forstorp
School of Computer Science and Communication KTH, Sweden.

ABSTRACT

In this article, I will explore the media of law in popular legal culture
as an arena for alternative legal practices. This will be done through an
analysis of one of its principles, the principle of ―your words against
mine‖, i.e. examples of states of exception that declare a communicative
stand-still between two parties on the basis of the conflicting character of
their contested accounts. Being able to define a conflict in terms of ―your
words against mine‖, which has no precise counterpart in official legal
theory, is accomplished through a discursive strategy cultivated in the
popular legal culture. From a partial point of view it can also be used in
order to gain an advantage in a conflict.

INTRODUCTION
1

A fight broke out between a man and a woman late one night in January
2006. The scene was the busy bar, Crazy Horse, in the city centre of

1
I want to acknowledge the helpful critical comments by two anonymous reviewers and the help
with correcting my English by Sable Helvie.